The Pearl of Wonderland
by kemokage
Summary: A retelling of syfy's Alice from the point of view of the people of Wonderland. Mostly Hatter's point of view. This story will include details and answer questions the miniseries didn't have time for. Rated T for possible use of language.
1. Chapter 1: Faded Summer Days

**Hey! Welcome to my new story! This will be my first attempt at writing a fanfiction all by myself sort of and I'm really looking forward to it. Alice just presented too good of an opportunity to pass up. Sorry about the first time this was posted by the way. I had made up a rough draft of what the story submission would look like, I exit the page, and it turns out that somehow the story got submitted probably with an old chapter in it for the Avatar fanfic (which is will also still be worked on simultaneously by the way). So sorry about that.**

**So this story is inspired by the recent Alice miniseries on syfy and will basically be a retelling of what happened in the series from the point of view of some of the Wonderland characters. It will mostly be told from Hatter's perspective since he is there for most of the film (not to mention the fact that I absolutely adored his character) but it will start out with quite a bit of Jack. With this fanfic I will seek to answer questions I found myself asking as I watched the movie. Like what exactly are the differences between how Wonderlanders and people on our side of the looking glass feel emotion? What effect does tea drinking have on Wonderlanders? What was Hatter thinking when he did that?! ect. This story will also include flashbacks and a few scenes that weren't included in the movie (obviously for lack of time).**

**Alice belongs to syfy and Nick Willing. All inspiration from the original Alice in Wonderland books belongs to Lewis Carroll.  
**

**Please review. It would mean the world to me if you did even if it's just to point out some tiny grammatical error or spelling mistake. With that please enjoy!**

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A tale begun in other days,

When summer suns were glowing -

A simple chime, that served to time

The rhythm of our rowing -

Whose echoes live in memory yet,

Though envious years would say 'forget.'

_ Lewis Carroll_

_ Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There_

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_**Chapter 1 -  
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**Faded Summer Days**

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_It was those two boys again._

_The Heart family was currently vacationing in their plush summer cottage (and by cottage I mean huge royal mansion) in the country and as usual Jack was not allowed two steps out the door without a chaperone. The prince found this to be absolutely humiliating when his parents' busy schedule forced this chaperone to be one of his mother's suits, as they were the most overprotective things on the face of the earth. That would have been the case today had he allowed it, which he did not, leaving him sitting alone in his room, peering out the window at the world outside passing him by. In particular Jack was watching two boys secretly at play in the garden. How they had managed to seek onto the grounds was a mystery to him but this was the third day he had seen them out there._

_One of the boys was wearing loose cacky pants and a baggy camo jacket. He had a pair of buck teeth and short spiky blonde hair. Jack couldn't tell what color the other boy's hair was as he was always wearing an over-sized top hat that was much too big for him. He also wore an adult-size maroon smoking jacket and had to be the smallest boy his age Jack had ever seen in his life. Needless to say, he struck a very ridiculous figure._

_After about ten minutes of watching them having fun playing whatever game it was that they had invented Jack had gotten sick of just watching. He peered out his bedroom door to see if there were any suits patrolling nearby. Luckily they all seemed to be busy at the moment and the coast was clear. Silently Jack tiptoed through the hallway and made his way outside._

_He stood in wonder at the sight awaiting him. Rose petals filled the air and were strewn about everywhere. Jack soon found the culprit as he watched the little boy with the big hat jump up and swing down with his right fist at a bunch of roses that exploded into another burst of petals._

"_What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at the two boys. The boys froze and turned towards Jack in absolute silence, shocked at having been discovered._

"_Phew! It's just a kid. For a minute there I thought we were goners," the buck-toothed kid said as he grinned down at his friend._

"_Don't try to scare us like that again, okay kid?" the boy in the top hat said. "We have a very important job to do."_

"_And what would that be exactly?" Jack asked as he approached the boys, suspicion written all over his face._

"_We're destroying the roses that have been painted red," the buck-toothed boy said importantly._

"_What?"_

"_You see some white roses got planted in this garden by mistake and the suits didn't want to tell the queen, so they painted them red. Now I didn't think the queen would take it too kindly if she were to discover that there were fake red roses in her garden so I'm using my excellent tracking skills to point out which roses are the fakers. What do ya think of that?" the boy said as he beamed._

"_I think there's something wrong with your voice," Jack replied quite rudely. The boy was quite crestfallen after hearing this while his friend broke out into peels of laughter. The buck-toothed boy shot him a glare as his cheeks turned bright red._

"_Sorry Marchy, I didn't mean to make fun honest. That's the way he always talks," the boy said turning to Jack. "He hasn't had the privilege of having a proper education like myself. Sadly he also wasn't blessed with my good looks," the boy said as he tipped his hat to one side, briefly revealing a small tuft of dark brown hair before the hat enveloped his head again. For this comment he received a punch on the arm from his friend._

"_Hey it's only a joke! Marchy is a great tracker though. He can find a bandersnatch on a cloudy day. And after he finds the painted roses, I introduce them to the sledgehammer," the boy said as he held up his right fist._

"_I see, so you're doing this as a favor to the queen," Jack said finding the whole affair highly amusing._

"_Yeah, do you want to help us?"_

"_Sure."_

_Those roses didn't know what hit them, quite literally. Several of the flowers tried to figure out what was going on, but before they could make bud or root of it the buck-toothed boy Marchy would sniff his way over to a rose and shout, "This one's been painted!" Then the boy in the large hat would come bounding over and Wham! Goodbye flower. For good measure Jack would then give the floral remains an extra stomping into the ground. Well the whole experience was so disorienting and roses are such flippant creatures that it was no wonder that they made little progress in their reasoning. Luckily, for some of the flowers anyway, Marchy only discovered twenty-five percent of the roses to be painted and as Jack ground the last petal into the dirt they all collapsed onto the ground in a heap of exhausted laughter._

"_I'm Hatter by the way and that's Marchy," Hatter said extending his hand towards the prince. Jack smiled. He found the name to be quite fitting._

"_I'm Jack," he said as he shook Hatter's hand. "So… Why are you dressed like that?"_

"_Oi! This happens to be one of my best hats! And you're one to talk!" Hatter said slightly hurt. "You're dressed up just like a suit." Jack looked down at his clothes. He was wearing the red suit his mother had picked out for him with a black tie that had red hearts stitched down the front of it. Hatter had a point._

"_My parents are very strict about what I wear," Jack replied humbly._

"_That's funny, because mine couldn't care less!" Hatter said with a grin, immediately feeling better. Marchy did not care much for this discussion on clothes and instead thought of other mischief for them to get into._

"_Oh I know!" Marchy exclaimed as he briskly sat up. "Let's break into the armory and test out the new shooting range!"_

"_Marchy you know I don't like bullets. Let's play tea party instead!"_

"_We do that everyday though."_

"_But that's because it's so much!"_

"_Aren't tea parties for girls?" Jack asked. Hatter and Marchy turned and looked at Jack as if he had suddenly turned into a jabberwock._

"_You can't be serious. Not when it's a mad tea party with the casino's teas!" Hatter said with a mischievous grin._

"_Really? You actually have some of the casino's teas?"_

"_Naw, but that doesn't mean we can't pretend," Marchy explained, clearly warming up to the idea of playing it again._

"_Oh alright."_

"_I could even go round up Dormy and get him to join us. If I can wake him up that is." Unfortunately the trio was never able to have their tea party for at that moment a pack of suits rounded the corner. Without anytime to think Hatter and Marchy pushed Jack behind them and hid him from view._

"_Jack, just stay behind us. We can handle this," Hatter whispered to him. On the seeing the state of the garden the suits immediately began to encircle the children._

"_What do you boys think you're doing here? This isn't your own private playground. Do you know how angry the queen is going to be when she sees her garden?" Hatter stepped forward to play the negotiator._

"_We were actually doing her majesty a favor. You see some white roses had been planted in this garden by mistake and then painted red. We were only destroying the fake red roses."_

"_Yeah? Well I'm sure you can explain that to her yourself once we get you down to a holding cell," the suit said as he grabbed on to Marchy's shoulder._

"_Let go of me!" Marchy screamed as he tried to break free from the suit's grasp._

"_You're coming with us!"_

"_Like hell!" And with that Marchy drove his two front teeth straight down into the man's hand and bit as hard as he could. (This is why Hatter always played the negotiator.)_

"_Aaah! Get him off me!" the suit screamed in agony as two other suits rushed over and managed to pry Marchy away from him. The suit stared at his bleeding hand as his face started to turn purple with rage. As he was about to make an attempt at knocking Marchy's teeth out, Jack pushed Marchy to one side and finally stepped forward._

"_If you lay another finger on him, it will be the last thing you ever do." Shock spread across the suits' faces as they realized who was standing before them._

"_Sorry your majesty we had no idea these were friends of yours," the injured suit said as he bowed deeply along with the rest of the men. "It won't happen again."_

"_See that it doesn't or you'll be the one locked in a holding cell." Now it was time for Hatter and Marchy to look stunned._

"_Who are you?" Hatter asked, dumbstruck._

"_**JACK FREDERICK HEART!**__" Jack's face turned completely white with terror as he turned towards the yell's source. There to his utter dismay stood his mother, the Queen of Hearts and she did not look pleased._

"_What are you doing out here?! Unsupervised?! Gallivanting with these two miscreants?! And what on earth have you done to my garden?!"_

"_Mother, please. I can explain."_

"_Well I should certainly hope so young man. I will not have this kind of behavior from any son of mine!"_

"_Son?" Hatter turned towards Jack in disbelief. "You're the prince?"_

"_And you didn't even acknowledge your rank in front of your subordinates. My, your actions keep getting better and better. Now tell me what's going on here right this instant!"_

"_Your majesty, if you please," Hatter said as he lifted his hat off his head and gave a low and graceful bow. "Jack was simply helping us fix your roses." If there was a rule book to playing innocent, Hatter would have been a contributing source. His puppy dog eyes alone were enough to convince nearly anyone to believe him. Unfortunately that day he was face to face with one of the few people immune to his charms._

"_My now, aren't you sweet? I hate sweet," the queen said as she looked down at Hatter with disgust. Having never encountered this problem before Hatter was absolutely dumbstruck. "And what do you mean you were fixing my roses? You've made a complete shamble of my flower beds!" By this time Marchy was sick and tired of having to explain himself, so grabbing a handful of petals off the ground he stalked his way over to the queen and shook them in front of her face._

"_These flowers had been painted red! See?" Marchy said as he scratched a petal with his finger nails, revealing the white petal underneath the red paint. Jack was taken aback. He had thought their game was all pretend, but apparently Marchy actually could tell the difference._

"_Your majesty this is all perfectly ridiculous," the suit Marchy had bit said as he stepped forward._

"_Apparently not," the queen replied as she extended the petals toward him. "I want my gardeners brought in for questioning and make sure all of the roses are inspected."_

"_It'll just be a waste of time. We already took care of all of them for you," Marchy said. He was very pleased with himself._

"_How did you know they were painted anyway?" the queen said peering down at the petals. The ones with paint still on them looked no different from one of the real petals._

"_I followed my nose."_

"_Marchy here is a great tracker," Hatter offered._

"_Is he now?" the queen said looking down at the child with interest. She glanced up at her suits standing there not knowing what they should do. "You two in the back seize my gardeners and have them beheaded." The suits nodded and rushed off immediately. Jack just stood there, hoping his mother would have forgotten about him. Her sentence on the gardeners didn't concern him in the least. This was simply typical behavior for his mother. Hatter on the other hand gulped uneasily and rubbed a hand across his neck. He didn't want to think about what could have happened to his head if the queen hadn't believed their story._

"_You there, what on earth happened to your hand?" the queen asked having finally noticed that one of her suits had been cradling a bloodied hand._

"_That child bit me when we tried to take him in for questioning," the suit said clearly embarrassed._

"_Really?" her interest in Marchy ever increasing. "I like your spunk child. How would like to receive some royal training? I could use a man like you on my forces. Of course some things would have to been fixed, your appearance could certainly use some cleaning up to say the least." Marchy took a moment to consider this. It was a very generous offer especially from the queen of hearts, but Marchy liked the way he was and he wasn't about to let an insult about the way he looked slide._

"_Blow it out your ear!" The suits and Jack let out a gasp, no one but a dead man ever spoke like that to the queen. Hatter hid his face in his hat not wanting to look at his doomed friend. The queen merely grinned. Once she had made up her mind a "yes" or a "no" didn't make the slightest difference to her._

"_Excellent! Suits take him in!" The suit Marchy had bitten stepped forward with pleasure making sure to keep his hands well clear of the boy's mouth this time. Jack stepped forward and grabbed onto his mother's hand._

"_Mother don't…"_

_The queen pulled her arm away and placed it comfortingly on her son's head._

"_And don't think I've forgotten about you my son. Your actions definitely deserve some sound punishing. I should give you ten lashings. However I can't have your royal person scarred. I suppose a whipping boy is therefore in order. Suits!" Her suits immediately paused and looked back at their queen, Marchy still struggling and screeching in the one's arms. "It seems this child will be the prince's new whipping boy, make sure to give him ten lashings."_

"_Yes your majesty." Hatter gave out a yell at this. He couldn't stand back and allow his friend to be treated this way. He rushed over to Jack and grabbed him by the jacket._

"_Jack do something! You can't let them do this to Marchy!" he screamed at him. Jack merely dropped his head down in shame unable to look Hatter in the eyes._

"_Fine!" Hatter shouted as he pushed Jack down. He rushed forward, fists clenched, ready to take on the whole pack of suits. Now Hatter may have been incredibly short for a ten year-old boy but he was very good at jumping. He leapt at least six feet into the air at the suit who was holding Marchy, his right fist connecting perfectly with the man's left eye. That suit was having a very bad day. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Before either of the boys had time to even think of escape, though, Marchy was immediately picked up by another suit and Hatter was lifted up by the collar of his coat and swung his arms and legs vainly in the air as he watched the rest of the suits carry his friend away into the building. The queen placed an arm around her son and walked with him around the suit holding Hatter to get a good view of the boy._

"_Galumping, wart-eared toads! Puckering mome raths!" Hatter screamed at them. The queen might have slapped him for using such language, but with his current position dangling in the air and his vain struggles to get free and the fact that such a big mouth belonged to such a small boy, the queen merely let out a laugh and began walking back to the house with her son._

"_You may let that one go when we get back inside. He should be grateful I can't find another tart chef like his mother."_

"_So that is why he was able to get onto the grounds," Jack thought in spite of himself. "His mother works in the kitchen."_

"_Hey come back here you bloody wanker I'm not finished with you!" Hatter screamed at Jack. Jack merely glanced back and his mother tightened her grip on his shoulder._

"_I'll punch your bleedin' lights out do you hear me! I thought we were friends! How could you let them do that to Marchy! You're a traitor Jack! Do you hear me?! Twat!" was the last thing Hatter was able to get out before the door to the house closed behind Jack and his mother and they were left alone in the hallway._

"_Mother I will never forgive you for this," Jack said coldly as he turned to look into his mother's eyes._

"_Nonsense, I was only doing my job. In time you'll accept that Jack. You'll probably have forgotten this whole thing ever happened by the end of the month."_

"_You're wrong," Jack said as he pulled away from her._

"_I will never forget."_

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Ten years had passed and Jack still hadn't forgotten that day. It was the day he had started to see his mother for what she truly was: a monster, one which had to be stopped. At this moment he was staring down at her sleeping figure as she snored through the night thinking everything thinking in her kingdom was running like clockwork. All of the repression and hunger and fear her people were facing everyday while she lay in the lap of luxury. It was enough to make Jack sick.

He went over to the nightstand and removed the stone of wonderland's box from where it lay on a silver cushion. Jack hated his mother's gaudiness and his eyes skimmed over the room's décor with disgust as he looked at each heart shaped piece of furniture or golden framed portrait of his mother. Carefully he opened the box and cringed as it made its musical tinkle as it opened. He needn't have worried though, his mother simply continued with her snoring and his father, the light sleeper, had been resigned to sleep in a separate room after he had made an unfortunate comment about her snores.

Jack peered into the box and felt his heart lift. There inside was the stone of wonderland. It was truly a sight to behold. The knights clearly knew what they were doing when they made it.

"There'll be time to admire the ring later," Jack thought to himself. "Right now I have a mission to carry out." Silently Jack stole through the palace's hallways until he reached his private launch pad. There waiting for him was his sonic hedgehog (where do you think the idea for the video game came from?). He lifted up its hatch and opened the hangar's doors. As he slid into the driver's seat he flicked on the turbine spikes and the outside shell of the vehicle began to spin, then as he pushed the orange button the hedgehog really sprang into life and flew right through the open doors into the cool night air.

Capable of incomparable speeds, a hedgehog can put a flamingo to shame even on its worse days. In no time Jack had flown across the water to the city and had arrived at the building where the looking glass was kept. It had been shut down for the night and Jack easily made his way in undetected. As he pushed through the last door, he couldn't help but stare at the looking glass awaiting him on the other side of the room. Slowly, he strode forward and placed the stone of wonderland onto its platform. The mirror gave off a soft whir, letting him know that it had been activated.

Jack paused for a moment and studied his reflection in the mirror. Caterpillar had told him all he would need to know about the world on the other side, but even so he really didn't know what to expect. He had his documentation safely stowed away in his jacket pocket and enough "money" to last him what Caterpillar had calculated out to be a year. Still…

"What is life going to be like in the other world?"

"How am I ever supposed to find this Alice girl? And if I do how am I going to manage to convince her to come back through the looking glass with me?"

These were questions that flitted through Jack's brain during those brief moments.

"Come on Jack now is not the time. Remember the fate of Wonderland lies in your hands." With that last thought Jack grabbed the ring and put it back in its box and without another moments hesitation leapt through the looking glass into the void beyond.

Jack would never be able to describe the emotions he felt as he fell through that swirling vortex and came out with a crash onto the other side. The fall was nothing though compared to what he felt next as he began to stand: a tidal wave of emotion that enveloped him completely. It was as if he were reliving his entire life right before his eyes, but every feeling, every emotion was magnified ten times over. He felt his heart break into a million pieces and as he sank down onto his knees he felt his eyes sting with tears as he wept as he never had before.

"Welcome to life on the other side," a small voice seemed to whisper to him inside his head.

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**Boy that was a long chapter! I didn't intend for the flashback to be so long! But I just got the idea for it and that's how long it took for me to write it out and I just didn't have the heart to split it up or give it a separate chapter. So congrats for getting through that. I promise that most (if not all) of my next chapters will be a lot shorter than that one. It was really all the ruddy flashback's fault.**

**I absolutely adore the idea of young Hatter though! I can picture him now with in his over-sized coat and hat while he'd be so tiny. He'd be like Fifel except an actual person. I imagine that he'll go through a bit of a sudden growth spurt eventually.**

**Also I'd just like to comment about Jack for a moment. I always thought that he was a really nice guy in the series even though yeah he does turn into a bit of a prick with a stick up his butt once he's in Wonderland, but still a nice guy. I say this because I've noticed the general tone of disapproval for him in other fanfics (not that I don't like those fanfics). So because I can appreciate his character I plan on including him in this fanfic with the intent of telling his story without being biased by absolute Hatter adoration because he is a pretty cool guy and isn't the villain of this story. With that said look forward to utter Hatter adoration in the next chapter!**

**Again please review! The fate of this story's counting on you!  
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	2. Chapter 2: Tea and Cream Cakes

**Hello again! I come bearing a new chapter! I think that this one is much more reasonable in length (that last one was nearly as long as all the other chapters in my other fanfic put together, literally). As promised it carries with it a good dosage of Hatter pov.**

**Again please review! I greatly appreciate the ones I've received so far and all of the people who have alerted or favorited this story the tip of my hat to you, but I am just bleeding for more input here (dying for input shall come after I start to bleed to death).**

**Alice belongs to syfy and Nick Willing. All inspiration from the original Alice in Wonderland books belongs to Lewis Carroll.**

**So I hope you enjoy! Feel free to sit back, relax, and have a good ol' cup o' tea while you read this (provided that it is the normal leaf kind of course).**

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Hatta looked round once more, and this time a tear or two trickled down his cheek:

but not a word would he say...

- _Lewis Carrol_

_ Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There_

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_**Chapter 2 -**

**Tea and Cream Cake**

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_He had to keep moving. Always running. He couldn't let the pain catch up…_

_Hatter burst into his parent's alcove, tears streaming down his face. His mother was lying down on the couch exhausted from a day's baking having just returned from her shift in the kitchen. Flour still clung to her clothing and was smeared across her face. Without thinking Hatter leapt onto her and buried his face into her clothes willing her to keep him safe from the pain. Concern filled his mother's face as she looked down at her bawling child. Softly she removed his hat and began to smooth back his hair as she wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth gently as she hummed into his ear._

"_They took Marchy away," Hatter finally managed to say as he choked back the sobs._

"_What dear child?"_

"_Marchy. The queen said that he's going to be the prince's new whipping boy. That twat's going to get him into all kinds of trouble."_

"_Now now, dear child, you can't be using such language when talking about the prince."_

"_I don't care! Let him go kiss a jabberwock!"_

"_Well that doesn't sound very pleasant."_

_Hatter just lay in his mother's lap thinking about the prince and Marchy. It felt as though a knife had plunged itself deep into his back and had taken away a piece of his heart. His mother stared down at her son as he began to tremble. Scooping him up into her arms she walked into the kitchen humming the same tune as she placed Hatter in his favorite chair._

"_How about I get you a nice piece of cream cake?" she said as she stooped down to look Hatter in the eye. Hatter turned to look at his mother, sniffling as he wiped away his tears on his large sleeve._

"_With chocolate sauce on top?" he asked innocently. His mother smiled as she looked at him._

"_Of course."_

_As his mother prepared the cake, Hatter couldn't help but rub his back where the knife had gone in._

"_It hurts mom."_

_Worry flitted across his mother's face as she brought the cake (now dripping in chocolate sauce) over to her son._

"_I'm afraid that you just haven't grown into your heart yet Hatter," (This wasn't in fact Hatter's real name, his real name was Davis Sharp, but by that time even his mother had forgotten what she had named him and called him Hatter.) "You're still so small; every feeling is bigger for you. One day you'll grow up, though, dear child (actually his mother called him dear child more than anything else) and you'll be able to walk away from pain as easily as you walk away from steamed cabbage." With that Hatter's mother passed him a rather large piece of cake, making sure to cut the cake afterwards. (Don't ask me why or how she did this, even I'm not sure.) Hatter immediately began scooping one greedy mouthful of cake after another into his mouth and his mother watched him with a warm and satisfied expression._

"_Feeling any better?"_

_Hatter looked up for a moment and realized that the knife wound was gone and there was only a small aching left in his heart._

"_The pain's gone!"_

"_I'm glad."_

"_You know, the queen called you her best tart chef."_

"_Well that was nice of her!" his mother said in a rather bubbly manner as she began tidying the kitchen. Hatter just looked down sadly at his cake. He pushed his chair back and walked into the sitting room, picking up his hat as he lightly dusted it off._

"_I really liked him," he said as he ran his hands along its brim._

"_I know dear child, but Marchy will be alright and with Time's help you'll learn to grow out of him." Hatter gave his hat a good twirl as he placed it back on his head. He wasn't so sure he was just talking about Marchy. As for Time, well… since when was it ever on his side? But he walked back into the kitchen and continued eating his cake hoping that his mother's words were true and it would all be something he would grow out of eventually._

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Hatter had definitely grown over the past ten years. Standing at five feet nine inches, he now found his clothes all fit him perfectly (unless he didn't want them to) and people no longer asked if he and Dormouse were related (that's just embarrassing). He had also managed to finally grow into his heart, so to speak, although whether that was a result of the sudden growth spurt he had five years ago or all of the tea he drank, well, who could say?

Speaking of tea, that measly four of spades was supposed to be bringing by a new shipment from the casino that day. Hatter hated suits, they never smiled and they acted as if they were the most superior things in all of Wonderland, apart from the queen that is. With a loud sigh Hatter managed to roll himself out of bed and dragged himself over to his claw footed bathtub to start the hot water for his bubble bath. An hour later after he was done scrubbing himself with every sweet smelling concoction from Wonderland and the other world combined, he slipped down into his office and perused through his glass wardrobe. After a moment's thought he decided upon the crimson militia jacket with gold trim, black pants with the same gold embroidery down the sides, a white shirt neatly pressed, a lovely flamboyant purple and maroon scarf, and of course to top it all off, a black cane and his black coke hat. Then all that was left was his eyeliner and mascara and bring on the troops!

As usual, though, the suit was running late. No one in Wonderland ever seemed to be on time for anything. Hatter himself had once shown up for an appointment two days late. So, with some time to kill (and he wondered why Time was so unfriendly towards him), Hatter decided to mow his lawn (and by that I mean take a pair of scissors and a magnifying glass and make sure that every blade of perfectly green grass surrounding his desk was evenly cut). Hatter was a strong believer in the Wonderland philosophy of "ordered chaos." It wasn't until he was finally done that he heard on knock on his back door. Upon taking a glance through the peep hole and confirming that it was in fact spade number 4, Hatter unlocked the door and opened it with a flash of his grin and a twirl of his cane.

"And to what might I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Cut the jibe Hatter, you know I'm here with your next shipment," the suit said as glanced over his clipboard.

"Really? Was that today? Completely slipped my mind."

"Yeah well, I've got two crates here of the regulars and a special box of the new one the casino's whipped up. It's called Serenity."

"Serenity? Isn't that the name of a ship?" Hatter asked with a smile. Nothing. Sure it may not have been one of Hatter's funnier jokes, but still the suit could have at least tried to act friendly. He had been doing business with him for what? Almost five years now.

"Sign here."

"Keep your tie on. I need to check and make sure this new product can match up to my teahouse's reputation." The suit sighed as he removed one of the bottles filled with serenity and handed it over to Hatter. Hatter held it up to a light and shook the bottle watching as the red liquid swirled around inside. Removing the cap, he sniffed it first and then took a small sip. His eyes widened as a vision of his mother serving him cream cake flashed before them. He took a deep breath and allowed the memory to fade away but hung on to the feeling that came with it. With a lopsided grin he grabbed the clipboard away from the suit and scrawled off his wonderfully calligraphic signature (John Hancock had nothing on Hatter).

"A pleasure as always," Hatter said still grinning as he hooked his cane over the trolley that had the tea crates on top of it and wheeled it into his office. The four of spades merely grunted in acknowledgment and quickly left. Once he was gone Hatter buzzed Dormy over the intercom system to tell him that the new shipment had arrived and then grabbing two bottles of the new serenity elixir he strolled over to his desk. He placed one of the bottles in the glass cabinet he had on his wall where he kept a sample of every emotion his tea house carried. The contents of the other bottle he poured into a large silver drink mixer he kept on a self, adding its contents to the liquid already collecting inside it. As he started shaking the mixer Dormy quietly scurried into his office.

"The new shipment of tea has arrived?"

"Yes, and the casino's come out with a new concoction. It's called serenity. I want you to start moving it right away," Hatter said as he looked up. However, his words fell on deaf ears as Dormouse had already fallen asleep on his feet. With a sigh Hatter walked over to Dormy and snapped his fingers in front of him.

"Wake up sleeping beauty!"

"I wasn't asleep. Wasn't asleep," Dormy said as he staggered awake. "Start selling right away I gotcha."

"See that you do."

"How good is this stuff anyway?"

"I'm adding it to my own special brew aren't I?" Hatter said as he sat back down by his desk twirling his cane with one hand and rhythmically swirling his drink mixer with the other. Dormy merely shrugged.

"Your next shipment of supplies is ready for the Resistance by the way. Aren't you going to go take care of that?"

"Dormy you know that I don't deal with Dodo until after tea time."

"Yes, of course," Dormy said as he begun wheeling the tea trolley out of the office, already half asleep even as he continued out the door. Hatter shook his head and got out a glass tea cup and saucer and carefully poured the concoction he had been preparing into the cup. A pale brown liquid soon filled the cup and Hatter set the mixer down in its place as he eased back into his white wing chair with his cup of tea. Hatter took a small tentative sip and let out a sigh of contentment.

"The perfect blend of tea, shaken not stirred," Hatter said with a small chuckle, laughing at his own joke (someone had to). As Hatter slowly closed his eyes he allowed the warmth of the tea to spread through his body having now forgotten entirely about the vision of his mother, even the taste of her cream cake.

* * *

**Ta da! So what do you think? I know not the most exciting chapter but still an enlightening one I think. I'll give a big virtual cream cake to whoever can tell me what Hatter's real name: Davis Sharp is a reference to. Hint, hint, it has to do with Hatter's other name. Offer only good up to the fourth chapter.**

**I think it would be interesting if Wonderlanders really do feel emotions in a literal sense like in Catepillar's mental hospital where someone flying high has to be brought back down to earth or someone swollen with self-importance has literally grown in size. Therefore Hatter really does feel like someone's stabbed him in the back and not only in a figurative sense. Luckily a little cream cake goes a long way in Wonderland. I can only imagine what would happen to Hatter if he suffered from a broken heart. So the next chapter will switch back to Jack and his exciting adventures (hopefully) in our world!  
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**Again please review! The fate of this story's counting on you!**

**(I realized that this kind of rhymes so I've decided to always sign off with it except for right now where I'm signing off with a parenthesis but I don't think that a parenthesis technically counts anyway since it's a parenthesis.)  
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